by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Seventeen-year-old Joseph Padgett almost didn’t enter the Project Prepare Top Chef competition. Actually, he wrote his name on the sign-up sheet, erased it, then changed his mind and wrote it again.
Project Prepare is an independent living program for homeless youth ages 16-21 at Daniel, a local nonprofit child service agency. Clients receive housing, counseling, employment assistance and life skills education through the program. The Top Chef competition was designed to teach culinary skills as part of the independent living curriculum.
“I never cooked anything before the contest,” said Padgett Wednesday morning at the Hyatt Downtown. He was at the hotel because part of the first-place prize he earned with his tilapia Milanese and spinach salad with honey vinaigrette dressing was a day to job-shadow Hyatt Executive Chef Scott Brittingham.
Before Padgett turned in his chef’s tunic and hat, he had worked with several Hyatt food service professionals, who shared not only culinary tips, but advice about a career in hospitality as well.
Padgett took a working tour of the entire operation, from the pastry kitchen to the grill and sandwich board at Currents, the hotel’s restaurant.
Brittingham showed Padgett how to prepare a Philly cheese steak sandwich, then line cook Jeanne Ouellette took over for instruction in the fine points of having several orders ready to be served to the same table.
“Timing is everything,” she said.
Ouellette also shared some of her experiences in the profession, including travel opportunities and security, with Padgett.
“I have been able to travel all over the U.S. and the Caribbean through cooking. Another thing about this job, you’ll never go hungry. If there’s no food in your home, just go to work,” she said.
Visits like Padgett’s aren’t uncommon at the Hyatt, said Assistant Director of Human Resources Patty Paredes, even though it was the first time the food and beverage department has hosted an award-winning young chef.
“The hotel has had a great relationship with Daniel for a couple of years. We jumped at the opportunity to host Joseph as the winner of the culinary competition,” she said.
Parades said the Hyatt has an initiative called “Family of Responsible Caring Employees” that encourages management and staff to become involved with the community and organizations such as Daniel.
Padgett said he’s leaning more toward a career in psychopharmacology or ethnobotany, but spending the time in the kitchen was enlightening.
“It was very interesting and a lot more complicated than I thought it would be. The next time I eat in a restaurant, I’ll think about how many people it took to create that plate of food,” he said.
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